Maestro in Sinhala music

Why we love Pandit Amaradeva:

Carlo FONSEKA

Amaradeva is the creator of modern Sinhala Music. His biography is
its history. He set out to discover the genuine idiom of Sinhala music,
the highest development of which to date is the art song. He sensed that
in this Indian isle called Lanka the foundation of its music had to be
based on the Indian raagahadhari tradition. It had to derive its
sustenance from Lanka’s folk music. Its enrichment had to come from
judicious interaction with other musical traditions of humankind. His is
the recipe that empowered Amaradeva to elevate the minor musical genre
song to the level of serious art.

Pandit W D Amaradeva

Amaradeva has composed and sung some of the best songs - the musical
gems - ever created in the universe of Sinhala music. Dr Lester James
Peries the Founding Father of Sinhala cinema, judged that Amaradeva’s
voice “is the greatest musical instrument we have in this country”. The
magic of his voice, the exquisite permutations and combinations of notes
that comprise his melodic creations, the pristine perfection of his
pitch and his impeccable phrasing add up to make him an absolutely
unique vocal artiste.

In its strictest sense absolutely unique means the sole existing
specimen. And that precisely is what he is. In the Kingdom of Sinhala
music Amaradeva has long been the anointed sovereign. It is true to say
that the more we know him the more we love him; but the more we know of
him, the less there is that is both original and significant we have to
say about him. So all one can do at this point in time is to ask
rhetorically: “When comes such another?” and answer: “Never”.

Magsaysay award

When honouring Amaradeva with the Ramon Magsaysay in the field of
Creative Communication Arts in 2001, the Foundation recognized “his life
of dazzling creativity in the expression of the rich heritage and
protean vitality of Sri Lanka music”. To pay homage to Amaradeva the
undisputed Sovereign in the world of Sinhala music at this stage of his
life is surely in Shakespearean language: “To guard a title that was
rich before/ To gild refined gold, to paint the lily/ To throw perfume
on the violet/ To smooth the ice or to add another hue/ Unto the
rainbow”. This is, indeed, “wasteful and ridiculous excess”.

Accordingly in this essay I propose to take a different track and
explore the question why we love Amaradeva. Given my background of
knowledge and experience in biology - pure (physiology) and applied
(medicine) - that is something I feel qualified to do. There must be
reasons grounded in biology for the emotion we feel for him. We love him
for his music. Jay Chou, the best selling Chinese pop star recently
said: “... even when my female fans approach me they don’t tell me that
I am handsome. They tell me they like my music. It is my music that has
charmed them”. What then is the biological function of music? What is
music good for? Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882), the Father of Modern
Biology, gave the answer.

Biological evolution

That Charles Darwin’s name is inextricably associated with the theory
of biological evolution is common knowledge. His famous book The Origin
of Species was published in 1859. One implication of the theory of
evolution is that we humans - Homo sapiens are one of the 193 living
species of monkeys and apes. That we humans are part and parcel of the
web of life is implicit in the Buddhist worldview. This is reflected in
the oft repeated “May all beings be happy, healthy and well”. In the
orthodox Western outlook, however, Man is a unique being specially
created by Almighty God in his own image. In an inspired moment of
poetic truth, Shakespeare made Hamlet to exclaim, “what a piece of work
is Man ... the paragon of animals”. That was about 250 years before
Charles Darwin marshaled the scientific evidence that man was a member
of the animal kingdom.

Sex appeal

More relevant to our present purpose is the book Darwin published in
1871 titled “The descent of man and selection in relation to sex”. In
this book he suggested that some features of every animal have evolved
to make it sexually attractive to members of the opposite sex of its
species. The classic example of this biological truism is the peacock’s
tail.

Careful observations by zoologists show that peahens choose their
sexual partners by the size and shape of their tails. This makes
biological sense because the larger the tail the healthier the male bird
and therefore the better its chance of siring healthy offspring.
According to Darwin what their tail is to peacocks, the ability to sing
is to humans. That good singing is sexy will be denied only by the four
percent or so of every population who manifest the condition called
amusia. In Shakespeare’s phrase these unfortunates are not moved with
concord of sweet sounds. The sex appeal of good singing is too well
known in this age of sexual liberation to require elaborate
documentation. Elvis Presley was a living legend. Thousands of young
women yearned to be with him.

The evolutionary biologist Dr Geoffrey Miller of the University of
New Mexico has studied this phenomenon in-depth. He cites the case of
rock guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix who had sex with hundreds of
young female fans for the mere asking. The singer Robert Plant said, “I
was always on my way to love. Always...”. For the edification of those
who are doubtful about the reason for the sexual demand for good singers
let it be pointed out that just as unhealthy peacocks do not grow
gorgeous tails, unfit people cannot sing well. There is evidence of the
sexual appeal of singing from certain other species too. Zoologists have
discovered that several species of birds, whales and one of Man’s
closest evolutionary cousins the gibbons also indulge in singing as part
of their courtship. There is ample reason to conclude that the females
of these species respond most favourably to the best singers. To quote
another Shakespearean insight, “The man who hath no music in himself ...
is fit for treason, stratagems, spoils “. But he is certainly not fit
for love.

Uniting power

Another function attributed to music is that it serves to bind bands
of people together into united tribes. In the modern world, national
anthems bind people together. Traditionally soldiers have marched to war
to the beat of drums. In the remote past music appears to have played a
very important role in determining the character and direction of whole
civilizations. In ancient China, Egypt, India and Greece the role music
played in shaping society was well recognized and appreciated.

If music in fact served to bind members of a tribe together then the
more musical a tribe the more closely its members would be bonded and
this solidarity would have conferred on them an evolutionary advantage
over less musical tribes in the struggle for existence.

Application

Finally let us see whether, and if so to what extent, these Darwinian
insights are applicable to Amaradeva. In 1927 he was born into a culture
which was essentially Victorian in manners and morals. (In Britain
Victorian morals were dominant from the middle to the end of the 19th
Century.

Overt Victorian morals were so austere that even piano legs were not
left unclothed). Men with a strong sexuality were labeled ‘beasts’, and
their sexuality was a source of guilt and shame to them. So they
endeavoured to repress their sexual feelings. The emphasis was on the
utmost rectitude in matters of sexual behaviour and morals.

In the Sri Lankan world of music unlike in the West, the human
counterparts of peacocks with splendid tails were not expected to reap
the biological rewards of their magnificent singing. Restraint was the
name of the game they played. Renowned musician Dunstan De Silva has
recorded that “audiences raved over Amaradeva’s violin playing and
singing”. At a private sitting at the residence of the Indian High
Commissioner, one of India’s famous vocalists Suchitra Mitra had been
moved to ecstasy by Amaradeva’s singing. She had said “Amaradeva just
goes on singing in perfect “sur” and “tal” that music gushes out from
his throat like water from a fountain”. That there were hundreds of
thousands who shared Suchitra Mitra’s feelings cannot be proved; but it
is true.

As to Amaradeva’s role in uniting the nation to which he and we
belong by the magic of his music, there cannot be any manner of doubt.
The melody he created for Dalton Alwis’s lyric sasara wasana thuru and
the exquisite style with which he performed it vocally made Amaradeva
the noblest promoter of patriotism in our nation. His song Rathna deepa
janma bhumi has assumed the unofficial status of Sri Lanka’s national
song. Amaradeva says: “I routinely sing it as the last item in my
musical concerts and audiences invariably, spontaneously and
enthusiastically join in as I sing it. On such occasions I feel one with
them”. When Amaradeva feels one with us, we feel one with him. So we
love him because we love ourselves.